Two Railway engineers died after being trapped after a chunk of sand caved in on them during the construction of a railway underpass near Dara Valley on the Kota-Jhalawar National Highway 52 in Rajasthan on Thursday night.
The accident took place at around 8 pm while work related to box pushing was underway at the construction site. According to officials, the surrounding soil suddenly caved in, trapping the two engineers beneath the debris.
Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Saurabh Jain said rescue teams immediately launched an operation to pull the engineers out of the collapsed area. Railway officials and teams from the Kota Municipal Corporation’s fire department also rushed to the site and began rescue and relief operations.
The deceased were identified as engineers Prabhat Singh Jha and Pankaj Kumar Jha. Both were pulled out after nearly 10 to 15 minutes of effort using LNT and JCB machines and were rushed to a private hospital in Kota. Doctors declared Prabhat Singh Jha dead on arrival, while Pankaj Kumar Jha succumbed to his injuries shortly afterwards despite efforts to save him.
Doctor Rakesh Jindal said the medical team tried extensively to revive both engineers, but they could not survive.
Kanwas SDM Babulal Meena said labourers had already left the site when the incident occurred, and only the two engineers were present there for inspection. According to officials, they were reviewing the ongoing construction work when the soil suddenly collapsed over them. Police reached the spot within 10 minutes of receiving information about the accident.
The underpass was being constructed to ease frequent traffic jams in the Dara Valley area near Kota. Officials said the route witnesses heavy movement of large vehicles every day, while only one bridge currently exists in the area, often leading to severe congestion. Most of the construction work had already been completed, and concrete slab work was underway when the accident happened.
Reported by Dinesh Kashyap
